In modern building structures, it is common practice to provide a dropper ceiling located beneath the structural ceiling to provide a space for locating ducts, electrical wiring and similar items. Generally, these dropped ceilings are formed by a suspended grid of inverted tees which support various types of ceiling boards, and lighting fixtures are often mounted to these inverted tees.
There are a variety of mounting brackets presently being used to mount lighting fixtures to an inverted tee, one common example being a metal clip that snaps onto the inverted tee and includes a depending threaded stud that extends through an opening provided in the lighting fixture so that a nut and washer can be threaded on the depending stud to hold the fixture in place. Examples of such mounting brackets are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,868,490, issued Jan. 13, 1959, to Price and U.S. Pat. No. 3,003,735, issued Oct. 10, 1961, to Havener. This type of mounting bracket is somewhat difficult to use because of the tolerances involved in locating the studs at a proper location with respect to the lighting fixture openings, and the installation of such mounting brackets is often time consuming because it requires threadably mounting a nut onto the stud, usually within the confines of the lighting fixture itself.
In an effort to avoid the above-described drawbacks of mounting brackets having a threaded stud, it has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,660, issued June 29, 1971, to Dunckel, to form a mounting bracket having clips for engaging an inverted tee, and having depending, resilient flanges for functionally engaging the side walls of a lighting fixture. While mounting brackets of this type are generally easy to install, they are restricted to use with lighting fixtures having a size corresponding to the separation of the depending flanges of the mounting bracket, and they may become disengaged from either the inverted tee or the lighting fixture during use since they rely principally upon a frictional engagement with the inverted tee and the lighting fixture.
By substantial contrast, the present invention provides a mounting bracket which does not require a threaded stud, and which can be quickly and easily mounted in place to hold the lighting fixture or the like securely in place during use.